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Meryl Streep as Julia in Julie and Julia |
Blog standard Julie, but Julia has the right recipe
JULIE AND JULIA
Directed by Nora Ephron
Certificate 12a
THE New Yorker has marvellously long and intricate articles, but perhaps the bit I like best are the acidic cartoons.
I recall there once being an image of two dogs. One says to the other: “I used to write a blog, but now I just bark incessantly.'”
This sprung to mind whilst watching this feature that intertwines the lives of a woman whose cook book revolutionised Americans’ eating habits and a blogger who found direction during a nearly mid-life crisis from reading it. It is hardly surprising the bits that are most interesting is the back story behind Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking rather than the blog that prompted this film to be made.
Julia and Julie tells of how a 30-year-old wannabe writer decides to cook every dish in Julia’s cook book in a year and then write about the experience on the web. She is inspired to do so by a feeling her life is aimless: to her, her friends all seem to be very, very important, earning lots of money cutting massive property deals, while poor old Julie merely works for the New York government helping people who have suffered because of 9/11. What a message. Yuk!
There is a certain tweeness about it all: while Julia is of course a marvellous character with a marvellous story to tell, the contemporary pieces about Julie are fun at times, but you don’t warm to her as you do the older woman. As Meryl Streep says: “When you talk about passion, Julia Child didn’t just have it for her husband or cooking, she had a passion for living. Real, true joie de vivre. She loved being alive and that’s inspirational in and of itself.”
It is interesting that Julie’s hitherto supportive husband sticks the boot in at one point, pointing out how utterly self-absorbed she is about her blog and the like.
And does Streep have fun with this role: she guffaws at every opportunity, makes love to her husband with her eyes, her voice. She has captured the very essence of Julia’s passion for food. Watching her beat various dairy products is strangely enthralling, and lifts this film from being average.
Perhaps a fair criticism is Child’s life was interesting enough to warrant a film of its own, without Julie butting in. There is a lot there to work with – her struggle to learn to cook, then the best part of 10 years writing and re-writing the book, the success that followed and the marvellous, childless marriage she had with her husband, and how they were victimised by McCarthy witchhunts.
But I suppose studio executives probably thought it wasn’t sexy enough, and thus brought in this Friends sit-com style storyline of a 30-year-old New Yorker whose life is given some meaning and direction by a cook book.
Amy Adams is pleasant enough as Julie, and rapidly becoming typecast in this kind of kooky 30-something role. However, another fly in the soup is the fact the problems she must overcome to cook over 500 dishes in 365 days barely raise their head.
However, these are minor gripes. This is a gentle and at times absorbing film. I suggest not eating for a good few hours before you go to see it, and book a table at your favourite table for afterwards. I was utterly ravenous by the time the credits rolled. |
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